Head Coach Bill SnyderOn if that was his idea of closing out the game…“I had not thought about that, but that answer is probably no. It depends on what time frame we are talking about and maybe if you are talking about the last two minutes, perhaps, but not necessarily the last half. I mean there were some good things, obviously.”

On room for improvement, specifically second half defense…“Well, a lot, but it is a collective effort. If you put your defense on the field and they get off, then the offense puts them back on the field in three snaps or the kickoff coverage units puts them back in one snap, then sometimes you put them in compromising situations. I think that was probably the case. Now that was not totally the case, but that was part of it. I mean, it was a nice job in the first half and the only touchdown they gave up was in the short field after an interception by the offense so the fact that they held them to only three points I thought was very good. But, the second half was different.”

On if he saw overall progress from one week ago…“Well I think there were some things on the field that would allow you to believe that we are better than last week – consistency is one of them, quite obviously. The game has to be played that way in the conference that we are in. You cannot play a half or a quarter, three quarters, whatever the case may be, and that is the case and that has been the case. We do not have the consistency right now and the ability to play a solid four quarters.”

On how he used the two quarterback system…“There was a plan in place, but like everything else, you have a plan and all of a sudden the plan goes awry and you veer off of it. That was reasonably close to what we wanted to do, but we did not do it as consistently as we initially thought we would.”

On if he was happier with time of possession tonight…“A little bit, yes, but it should have been more. When you get into the latter stages of the second half and we have a three-and-out and all, it is not good.”

On his thoughts about the special teams unit…“We were fine until they ran one back, and that is what the game is all about. That is the consistency part of it. I applauded all of our kicking game until they did that.”

On if he was happy Tramaine Thompson did not let the second half kickoff run out of bounds…“It is funny you ask that because I was yelling on the headset, ‘Let it go out of bounds! Let it go out of bounds,’ so that shows you what I know. The answer is yes, I am glad he did not let it go.”

On the heat playing a factor in the defense’s conditioning…“I think they were probably worn down a little bit. I think that was the case last week. To me it is a mindset, you want to be worn down, you want to be worn down – if you do not, you do not. That is what we have to overcome.”

On if tonight was a step in the right direction for third down defense…“Well particularly in the first half, they caught up to us in the second half. In the first half, they did not get a third down conversion. Offensively we had I think we had five out of eight third down conversions in the first half, but like I said, they caught up to us in the second and balanced out a little bit.”

On having a plan with Daniel Sams coming in on his touchdown run…“We put [Daniel Sams] in at that time because we needed him in the ball game. I cannot tell you that it was planned for such and such drive or such and such time; that was not the case. But, he needed to be there.”

On if there was a mental or executional breakdown when UL scored 14 straight points…“Well I think it was probably a combination of things. Mistakes on our part; execution was certainly a part of it. I think that letdown that comes with that, no matter how hard – just look at last week, the same thing happened. Come out in the third quarter and score real quick a couple times, then all of a sudden here they come, and I understand that is somewhat human nature, but human nature does not work on the athletic field. That is discerning for sure.”

Kansas State Player QuotesJunior Quarterback Jake WatersOn overall assessment from week one to week two…“Obviously we got the win, so that is better but there are still things to improve on. For the most part I thought we played a decent game. I had a lack of focus on my part too, but for the most part I thought we did alright.”

On the two quarterback system…“I think it can work. You just have to use us right and they (the coaches) are and they did tonight. With Daniel (Sams) coming with that change of pace, it really gave us that spark that we needed.”

On his mentality sharing reps…“It is all about winning and the team. If you have that mindset, it is easy to handle. When I am out there, I am the guy and it is my team and when he is out there, it is his team and he is the guy. We know that we both want what is best for the team and that is where we are heading.”

Junior Wide Receiver Tyler LockettOn tonight’s game…“I thought we came out pretty good. We showed a lot of hunger and desire in the first half. I think we have to learn how to close out games. I think we were up 20-3 and Tramaine (Thompson) had a great kick-off return and turns around and has a great punt return. I think we just have to learn how to close out games.”

On Tramaine’s kick-off return…“However we can help each other out, that is one of the things that we want to do. I thought Tramaine was going to let it go out of bounds at first, but then I saw him catch it and thought to myself ‘what is he doing.’ Then I saw the opening, we ended up getting the kicker blocked, everybody made the right blocks and he ended up scoring. It was a great return.”

Senior Offensive Lineman B.J. FinneyOn tonight’s game…“Obviously, it is always nice to come out with a win. We were more prepared and the guys worked hard throughout the week. We played with less mistakes than Louisiana. Today we were able to move the ball.”

On practice leading into the game…“We had some really good practices that we put together. We were more consistent. Our Wednesday practice teetered off a little bit, it was not as good as Monday or Tuesday but we had some good practices to build upon this week.”

Junior Wide Receiver Curry SextonOn the positives and negatives of tonight’s performance…“I think we did some good things but I also think that we left some plays out there and we made some key mistakes. Obviously, the kick return that we gave up, we cannot let that happen, especially when we came out and started the way that we did in the second half offensively. We had some penalties. I had one myself. We had some drops within our position, so we just have to come back and correct those mistakes and go from there. Coach Snyder told us that we put some good plays out there but we also put a lot of mistakes out there and those are the things that we cannot afford to do in conference play. That was a good team out there tonight but it is only going to get tougher from here on out.”

On the performance of Tramaine Thompson…“When you put the ball in his hands, something is going to happen. As you can tell, they have just been trying to avoid kicking to those guys and those guys have unfortunately earned the right for that to happen. They kicked it into the corner and usually, Tramaine is the off returner but he had to make a play and luckily we were in a good call. We got some good blocks and were able to spring one. You are not going to see Tramaine get caught very often, so it is fun to stand behind him and watch him run one in.”

On the play of Daniel Sams and Jake Waters…“They are different types of quarterbacks but we cannot worry about who is lining up behind center. We have just got to worry about our job and what we have to do. Obviously, you saw them do some good things tonight. It is a good change of pace from one of them to the other and I think you will probably continue to see that. But as receivers, we cannot worry about which guy is in, they both do good things for us. We just have to go out there and do our job regardless of who is on the field.”

Senior Wide Receiver Tramaine ThompsonOn the success of the special teams tonight…“We take a lot of pride in it, we practice it every day and I think it shows in our performance.”

On the difference between last week and this week…“We did not make as many mistakes. We still made some that we can correct. We came out and attacked them more than we did last week.”

On his long punt return…“I just ran out of gas and I am pretty upset with myself about that. I would have loved to get in the end zone; I just have got to get some more gas in my tank.”

On not letting the ball go out of bounds on his kickoff return touchdown …“The whole way that I tracked it I knew where I was and I almost let it go. We talked about it countless times that if my foot is on the hashmark, let it go. It was on the hash but I just decided to take it for some reason.”

On what Coach Snyder said to him after his kickoff return touchdown…“He just told me ‘Good job’. I am just glad that he wasn’t yelling at me because it was pretty close. It would have went out of bounds if I would not have caught it. “

Sophomore Quarterback Daniel SamsOn the positive effects of tonight’s win…“It takes a little bit of pressure off but we cannot stop here. We have got the conference schedule coming up so we just have to keep growing.”

On defeating a team from his home state of Louisiana…“It felt good. I knew a couple of the guys on that defense and there was a little bit of talking between plays, so it felt good. One of their players said something to me about high school, I really cannot remember what he said, but it still felt good feeling a team from Louisiana.”

On getting more snaps against Louisiana…“It felt really good. I was glad that I got in early so I could do what I do. We will just see how it goes down the line.”

On how the team felt after the game…“We felt better. We came out and felt like we had something to prove. But like I said, we cannot stop here because we have a long conference season and we just have to keep going and find what motivates us to be great on offense.”

On what his mindset was before leading K-State to a touchdown in the second half…“I really just wanted to finish. I felt we left some points on the board on some previous drives and we had to get in the end zone no matter how we had to do it and we did that.”

On the two-quarterback system…“I think it is good. It kept the defense off balance because they really did not know what to expect. They expect me to run the ball. There were a couple of times where I could have checked to a pass but I just felt good on my feet tonight.”

On what K-State needs to improve on most…“We need to find our killer instinct. Sometimes we tend to let our foot off of the pedal. I did not know if we are looking at the scoreboard or looking at how much time there is left in the game. I feel like we just need to find our killer instinct and finish off drives.”

Junior Defensive End Ryan MullerOn weather impacting play…“No, heat is something that we deal with constantly during workouts and what-not with Coach Dawson. We work out in 100 degree heat and it will be 125 degrees on the field and we will be working out with 25-pound vests. It is something that we train for. It is just something we have to expect for the next day and on game days it is going to be a hot day. So you just have to take care of yourself with fluids.”

On the play of the defense…“With defenses in college football in general you see the biggest improvement between week one and week two. I think you might have saw a little glimpse of that tonight.“

On not being able to defend on third downs…“Yeah I was kind of having flashbacks of last week playing North Dakota State. You know we would have them on third down and they would kind of escape and get out of it. And it is just something that we are going to have to learn to fight more and get better as a defensive unit.”

Senior Safety Ty ZimmermanOn defensive performance throughout the game…“First half we played as well as we probably could have. Getting back down there with the turnover and getting out of there with just a field goal. Second half we kind of had a few letdowns, it just lets us know that we have a lot of work to do and we are going to do that this week.”

On how to get more consistency…“Guys just getting more focused and getting that game time experience. Week in and week out hopefully we just continue improving and gain some focus.”

On energy of the team improving…“I do especially after last week’s game, I feel like it was a big letdown for us. A lot of guys were just really frustrated and we were able to take that out onto the field tonight.”

On defense stepping up…“Yeah, I don’t know, we just made a lot of mental mistakes, a lot of errors and we missed a lot of alignments and assignments. We were able to correct that this week.”

Louisiana Head Coach and Player Quotes

Head Coach Mark HudspethOn how they played in the game…“Well you look at the game, and there is a 21-point difference in the game. If you take away the interception return, the kickoff return, and basically the punt return, and you would have a tie football game. I thought defensively we played a really good game against a really good football team with two talented quarterbacks. Offensively, we have got to find some answers. We did get some things going in the second half, and some guys stepped up and made some plays. We just did not make some plays in the first half. We had a drop ball on the fake punt, which was perfectly executed, but you have got to make the catch. There were some other things that we have got to do a better job at executing. I thought defensively we played well enough for us to win. Defensively, we played well enough to win. Offensively, we have got to carry the load a little bit. I think we only had half the snaps that the defense had in the first half. Like I told our team, we did not play two cupcakes like a lot of teams play in the first two games of the year. We played a SEC team that has a lot of success in the last two years. We played the defending Big 12 champions, and we feel like crap right now because we are 0-2. We really felt like we could have competed with both of them, but we cannot make the mistakes that we made tonight to compete with a team like this. If we eliminate some of those mistakes, then we have a chance to be right there in that ballgame. That is exciting, and our kids and coaches feel that way that this is how far we have come to expect to beat the Big 12 defending champions.”

On K-State’s big plays being frustrating…“You look at the first half and we did not get anything going offensively, and then the second half they had a big kick return that looked like they were getting ready to get control. Then our guys did not quit, came roaring back with the momentum, and were really right back in the game until the interception for the touchdown really broke that momentum. I thought defensively we played exceptionally well. We only gave up 27 points on defense, and I think if you hold the Big 12 defending champion to 27 points offensively then you have got to have a chance to win the game. The (interception) return for a touchdown, a kick return for a touchdown, and basically a punt return down to the one, that is another seven. That was the difference in the game. You take away those three plays and we have a tie ballgame. We have got to find some guys on our kickoff coverage units that are disciplined enough to make some plays. Give their guy some credit too though. That is why he is the number one guy in the nation. We knew that coming in, and he got us tonight pretty good. They have a good football team. You can tell they got it back on track as you might expect Coach Snyder might do that. Like I told our team, we played two really good teams to start this year. We did not open up with two bad teams. I told those guys that we are not going to hang our head. We are disappointed that we did not win one of the two or both, but there is a lot of football to be played.”

On why they could not get big plays…“We got to keep our feet. We ran a couple routes and fell down when we were wide open. We dropped a ball on a fake punt that we are wide open that will extend the drive. It will keep our defense off the field. We just have got to execute. I thought in the second half we opened things up a little bit. We gave our playmakers a chance by stretching that field a little bit. I thought we made some plays down the field that opened things up. We were a little conservative in the first half. In the second half we opened things up, got momentum, and got back in the game. I give our kids a lot of credit for that. We have got to start faster, and just find a way to eliminate some of the things we did that hurt ourselves. We can control those things. We need to stay in our lanes on kickoff. Those are the things that are most disappointing.”

Cornerback Dominick JonesOn momentum changes…“I thought we still played good ball today, we never got down on ourselves. We never let up until the game was over. We kept competing when everything happened against us, we just kept fighting.”

On playing behind K-State…“You just cannot let it get to you. You have to keep fighting and never give up.”

On creating adversity…“We prepared, we made plays we have to learn and to overcome adversity. We obviously know bad things will happen. We have to keep working.”

Wide Receiver Jamal RobinsonOn living up to coaches expectations…“We need to stop making small mistakes and perfect everything we do.”

On frustration level of playing from behind…“Very frustrating, we were not going to give up and try and find a way to get back into the game.”

On confidence from the second half…“We got everything started working in the second half. Everybody was getting their blocks and making plays. We just have to make it happen in the first half.”

Wide Receiver Darryl SurgentOn his kick return…“It is exciting and actually being out there and actually doing it. Just following my teammates and finding a hole. That is the greatest feeling seeing my teammates laying them out and making a way for me to run out.”